The Current Racist Trend Projected Into the Future

When identity politics and racial victimization becomes a dominant cultural trend–and especially when it is maintained that character and identity are determined not by individual choice but by racial membership–it is logically inevitable that members of every tribe and racial sub-group band together into political gangs seeking protection from the other. One need not be a genius to discern the end game of such a trend.

Indeed, we have already seen a microcosm of it in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, 2017. The bloody street battle between rival gangs fighting race/class war should be sufficient to give all thoughtful Americans pause. We must re-think our fundamental philosophic, moral, and political principles. Otherwise, we inexorably stagger toward the horror of race war.

As a devout atheist, I hope and pray that we reverse the current baleful trend. For, if we permit it to continue and to metastasize, it will be merely a matter of decades–perhaps only years–before the National Socialist Left, wielding now a trendy philosophy, can recruit many members from the white majority. Currently, they are a tiny and marginalized minority among white Americans. But philosophy is a powerful force. Hitler and his supporters, Lenin (and Stalin and Mao) and theirs, jihadists whether Sunni or Shiite, were (and are) not common thugs seeking unearned loot. Rather, each group held a systematic philosophy–one of race war, one of class war, one of holy war–that galvanized millions to violent action in quest of racial, class, or religious world dominance. If, as a culture, we continue to espouse a philosophy of racial identity, how long before thousands, perhaps millions, of white Americans, seeking protection from the racial other, band together under the banner of the National Socialist Left? And what then?

Marching, clamoring, waving swastikas and Confederate flags, they will overtly push us toward creation of a white “ethno-state,” while the Marxist Left, fighting the rich, white oppressor, meets them head-on in bloody race/class war. The KKK and the American Nazi Party versus Antifa and Black Lives Matter[xxxiv], in the gutters, replicating in America the Nazi/Communist street battles of the 1920s and ’30s in the Weimar Republic.

If so, in the end, no matter who wins, America loses. Either side, triumphant, will impose full socialism. Either side will utterly crush individual rights.

The Rational Antidote

After the above discussion, the remediating solution becomes manifest: We, the human race, must recognize the truth of–and embrace–the principle of color-blind individualism. We must acknowledge that race does not matter–that melanin amounts, hair texture, facial bone structure, and so forth–signify zero regarding the only human attribute that does matter: Strength of character.

In homage to this sacred truth, let us, in our universities eradicate such race-based travesties as Black Studies programs, Latino Studies programs, and so forth, and replace these with

Human Studies programs, where we study together the history and the achievements of diverse human beings–individual members of both genders, all races, many tribes–and how such exalted accomplishments benefit(ed) human life on Earth.

Fundamentally and above all, let us sweep aside the arrant subjectivism of Post-Modernism and acknowledge the existence of objective reality, and its cognitive accessibility to the rational human mind…the human mind, regardless of race, tribe, or gender. In so doing, we can acknowledge, for example, that Japanese medical men make advances that benefit the health and longevity of Western whites and blacks; related, that Dr. Ben Carson, pioneered brain surgery techniques for children that saved the lives of white kids, as well as blacks; that Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Pasteur identified laws of nature as true for women and non-whites as they are for males and whites; that Ayn Rand wrote magnificent novels that can be as fully savored by males as by females, by both non-whites and whites; and so forth. What makes such benefits possible? A thinker can identify truths and laws of nature that, because universal, can enlighten and advance all human beings regardless of race or gender.

We can acknowledge the common humanity of our brothers and sisters, regardless of race. And we can put a definitive end to mankind’s tragically unnecessary, blood-spilling, incessant race war.

References

[xxxiv] And make no mistake, Black Lives Matter is an overtly racist organization. Taleeb Starkes, in his courageous book, Black Lies Matter: Why Lies Matter to the Race Grievance Industry, makes clear the evidence supporting such a judgment. The only black lives that matter to BLM are the ones terminated by whites, regardless whether those killings took place in self-defense. The horrendously high homicide rates of black-on-black crime–where most killings are not done in self-defense but as cold-blooded murder– including of little children deliberately targeted to hurt their fathers, means nothing to BLM. (Taleeb Starkes, Black Lies Matter, 29-30, 52-77, and passim.) Since black lives do matter–as all human lives matter–honest human beings, including BLM if it wants to save lives, need to focus our efforts on the immediate cause of so many tragically early black deaths: The criminal sub-culture that terrorizes many urban black neighborhoods. Starkes quotes journalist, John Fountain: “The national tally of black males 14 or older murdered in America over a 30-year period from 1976 through 2005, according to the Bureau of Justice statistics: 214,661.” Murdered by black criminals. “Yet a group that calls itself Black Lives Matter didn’t care to exist until Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman [and possibly in self-defense].” Taleeb Starkes, Black Lies Matter, 29, 30. Color-blind justice, for Black Lives Matter, is not an issue. After-all, as their professors taught them: There is us–and there is the racial other. There is no truth but racial truth. What matters is: white and black…nothing else.

Make no mistake, there are serious questions to be raised regarding Black Lives Matter (BLM), as Taleeb Starkes does in his courageous book, Black Lies Matter: Why Lies Matter to the Race Grievance Industry. For example, Starkes quotes journalist, John Fountain: “The national tally of black males 14 or older murdered in America over a 30-year period from 1976 to 2005, according to the Bureau of Justice statistics: 214,661.” Murdered overwhelmingly by black criminals–94% of black murder victims are killed by blacks. (Taleeb Starkes, quoting Department of Justice statistics, Black Lies Matter, 41.) “Yet a group that calls itself Black Lives Matter somehow didn’t care to exist until Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman” [and most likely in self-defense]. (Taleeb Starkes, Black Lies Matter, 29,30.)

Further, in Detroit in 2014, a black criminal walked up onto the porch of a house and deliberately shot 2-year-old Kamiya French, killing her execution-style to make her father watch and suffer. In Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, Michael Brown was shot and killed while assaulting a police officer. BLM protested the death of Michael Brown but not Kamiya French. Why? In Chicago in 2015, a thug lured 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee into an alley and then killed him execution-style–and wrote a rap song to commemorate the murder, including the lines, “Shorty couldn’t take it no more, Shorty couldn’t take it no more.” In Baltimore in 2015, Freddie Gray, a drug dealer and career criminal, died while in police custody. BLM protested the death of Freddie Gray but not Tyshawn Lee. Why? And on the horror goes: Thousands of blacks killed every year–including numerous innocents, a significant portion of them children–but there are no protests from BLM. Why? Why are many innocent black victims, including children, not a public issue for BLM? Because of the skin color of the perpetrators. Why are the black victims that BLM protests a public issue for them, regardless whether or not they were killed in self-defense? Because of the skin color of the killer. Color-blind justice, for Black Lives Matter, is not a public issue. After-all, as their professors taught them: There is us–and there is the racial other. There is no truth but racial truth. What matters is: white and black…nothing else.

One thing that all honest persons can do, including BLM if it legitimately cares about saving innocent black lives, is to campaign for the legalization of drugs. One good result, of many, would be to bring down the rate of homicide dramatically in this country. When honest business persons can traffic in drugs, like they can in alcohol, criminal gangs are deprived a large source of income and are thereby severely undermined. The horrendous violence surrounding the drug trafficking in our cities will be significantly curtailed. Indeed, one economist estimates that eliminating drug prohibition would lower the U.S. homicide rate by a staggering 25-75%. Jeffrey Miron, Drug War Crimes: The Consequences of Prohibition (Oakland, California: Independent Institute, 2004,) 51.

Another thing BLM can do is to work with responsible black leaders in the high-crime neighborhoods–the ministers, the teachers, the business persons, and necessarily, the police department–because the police must be part of the solution; engaging in the dangerous job of outreach to the criminal gangs–the “urban terrorists,” as Taleeb Starkes calls them–that terrorize the neighborhood. Former NFL great, Jim Brown, has had success working with members of urban crime gangs–and other great athletes in our large cities, if they can be convinced, might be able to do the same. Chip Johnson, “Jim Brown still has the power/NFL great takes on gang violence, drugs,” August 30, 2001, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/johnson/article/Jim-Brown-still-has-the-power-NFL-great-takes-2883963.php. Accessed on November 24,2018. This would be a worthy, if hazardous, undertaking for anyone concerned to protect black lives. Such an activity would make Black Lives Matter worthy of its name.

Andrew Bernstein holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the City University of New York. He lectures all over the world. He is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute. He has written numerous books, including his novel, A Dearth of Eagles, recently published and available from Amazon.